Viktor Panchenko

Viktor Panchenko was the commander of the October Otriad of partisans from the Soviet Union during World War II. He was affiliated with the Red Army.

Biography
Viktor Panchenko was born in present-day Belarus in the Russian Empire, and was a soldier Soviet Union's Red Army at the time of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. He became the leader of the October Otriad, a group of partisans that fought behind Nazi Germany's lines in their invasion of the USSR. Experienced with warfare, they had the support of several local villages that supplied them with food and guns. Panchenko met up with the Bielski Otriad in August 1941 after the Bielski-affiliated Jewish refugees stole food from October-affiliated towns, but Panchenko accepted Tuvia Bielski's offer of service in fighting a common enemy. The Soviets took in the best fighters of the Bielski Otriad for assisting in the guerrilla war, and they preferred to ambush German columns and kill Axis soldiers rather than hide out in the woods like the Bielski Otriad did.